Hi,
For fun and for contribution to this cool forum from which i have gotten so much help,I'd like to describe some of the
very addictive games we play with friends that became quite popular in the area we stay (greece). many of these we "invented" ourselves others were taught to us by "old cows".
Playing holdem with your 11/8 friends is so boring..
There are many,many more games, if there is interest sometime in the future i will make another post describing those.
These are all intended to maximize FUN and the adrenalin of gambling but also
skill is of great utility.
Rules:
First of all, these must be played with 3-4 people and no more.
The deck is stripped and contains only 7-A cards.2-6 are discarded.
So, that card removal (combinatoricly) has the effect that flushes beat full houses in most of the games, unless otherwise stated.
Also, a straight is possible using the A as a low card so A789T is a valid straignt but also is AKQJT.
That has also the effect that hand strengths are greatly reduced relative to other forms of poker. But obviously this adds up the excitement.
You cannot use only 1 card from your hand holding and 4 from the community cards.
Another important issue is that the games are played with a big ante in comparison to the blinds, so many people enter the pot each time usually 2-3 or all 4. We sometimes play them only with antes, you can see how the game flow goes and adjust your blinds etc.
Preflop hand strength is not so important because of all the cards that are opened later on and the implied odds. Also, some has to be said about betting.
The games are played no limit and with so many betting rounds you can get allin on the first 3 cards yes, but when you play these games a lot you will see there is no point in shoving a big pair when the first card hits cause the other players will pick up that you are not a huge favorite with 6 cards or more to open.
So in general, this turns most players into a passive calling / small value betting mode until a reasonable part of the deck is shown.
Showdown rule:
Players MUST declare what their best hand is. It is their responsibility (and ability) to figure out what their best possible holding is. If a player declares he has a straight but the last opened card(s) made him a straight flush for example, he will loose from a player declaring a full house no matter what.
Then, he can be berated
NO NITS
tip:You need deep, DEEP stacks to play so many betting rounds.
Don't put the price of the blind high.
So I will proceed to the games description.
Note that game names are made up to be fun
Also note that in all those games community cards are dealt upfront, this adds to gameflow and the visual aspect of the games.
Game #1: The Undertaker
(original inventor unknown but game rules were enhanced by my friends and me)
In this game, flushes beat full houses.
Players get dealt 4 cards and they must discard 1 of them immediately.
Each player can use all 3 cards of their hand with 2 community cards, or 2 cards and 3 community cards.
5 community cards are opened 1 at a time with a betting round. lastly, the
death card is dealt as a community card. If you have this card in your hands (its rank obv) then you immediately lose the pot
if it goes to showdown.(this is a good time to make a bet to drive the other player out if you have the balls
)
Note that two players both busted, split the pot.
Lots of levelling goes on with the death card.
So there are 7 betting rounds and sometimes players protect their hand if vulnerable to avoid death, and others pay with crap hands that are not vulnerable just to see the other guy bust. Flushes are vulnerable to busting because you don't hold a pair in your hand.
There is a last betting round after the death card is opened which is the greatest fun of all cause you can turn your hand into a huge bluff even if you had a royal straight flush and got busted (so sorry).
This game is a favorite.
Game #2: Propo (dont know how this was named)
In this game, full houses beat flushes, trips beat straights (but this almost never happens).
Straight flushes are way too common here, and many times you will see that you will loose with a straight flush (so sorry).
Each player is dealt 4 cards.
Each player can use either 3 cards of their hand with 2 community cards, or 2 cards and 3 community cards.
First 2 community cards (simultaneously) are opened followed by one more and one more. Then there is a card change round where you can keep your dealt cards, or can change up to two of your cards to get new ones. Great dilemmas arise when you change your cards because you can be drawing to all sorts of things and then decide to give maximum effort to draw to one thing.
Then 3 community cards are opened one at a time with a betting round each.
Straight flushes are common in this game. Sometimes it has happened that you go by color rank to get the winning hand.
Game #3:Torpedoes
(invented by my friends and me)
Flushes beat full houses
Each player is dealt 4 cards.
Each player can use all 3 cards of their hand with 2 community cards, or 2 cards and 3 community cards.
2 columns of 5 cards are dealt side by side , the last card of each column is a death card.
Cards open 2 at a time, one of each row column.
After the third row opens, each player discards 1 card of its holding.
To make this clear:
you open row 1 left and right card, then row 2 left,right card etc.
You make your hand in each column like playing with a second chance.
An example to make this clear. You hold AA9 (and toss a 7 when you discard) and the first column reads A987 and the second column reads ATJ7.
You currently have Aces full of 9's in the first column and trip Aces in the second column. If the death card hits you in the first column(9), you still have trip Aces in the second as a valid hand.
As usual, before death cards open players may want to protect their hands or they may simply pretend that they protect their bluffs
Game #4:The Megabank
Flushes beat full houses
Each player can use all 3 cards of their hand with 2 community cards, or 2 cards and 3 community cards.
This is actually 3 games played as one with the same starting holdings.
You get dealt 4 cards and discard 1 immediately. Obvious best hands are AAA but also hands to straights like QJT suited are top.
Sub game #1 The mirror
there are only 3 community cards opened one at a time.
The best possible hand is always a mirror i.e the exact same community cards (in their rank) that are also in your hand.
For example community cards are AhKhJh and one player holds ThQh3s and the other one holds AsKsJc , the straight flush looses and the mirror hand wins.
(This example is so rare i have not seen it happen but you get the point
)
Sub game #2 The cross
A cross with a total of 5 cards. You can go in a vertical or horizontal direction using 2 or 3 cards from your holding and make the best possible hand. Community cards are opened top,bottom together, then left,right together and then the middle card is opened last.
(You can get the center card with the right one or the center up and bottom for example). You cannot use non-continuous cards if you use 3 cards from your hand though.
Sub game #3 The pyramid (small version)
Each player can use 2 or 3 from his holding.
there is a row of 3 then 2 then 1 card forming a pyramid, each row opens alltogether.Hand is formed using
one card from each row.
Non-continuous cards
can be used.
For example you can use a card from row 1 and 3.
This concludes the Megabank series (the dealer is often dissapointed having to deal so many cards but is ok).
Game #5 The sun
(invented by my friends and me)
Flushes beat full houses.
Each player gets dealt 4 cards and does not discard.
You can use only 2 from your holding hand.
8 cards are dealt like community cards in a round "sun" appearance, and in the center of this 2 cards are dealt.
Community cards open two at a time, but on the opposite sides.
For example, top,bottom together, left,right together, 45 degrees card with 225 degrees card (clockwise counting)etc.
Then, the last 2 center cards are opened.
Now the making of the best hand is a little complicated:
These center cards are obligatory and you must choose 1 of them, 2 continuous from an area of the board and only 2 from your hand holding.
Example with degrees:
0 degree card is A, 45 degree is J 90degree is K.
In the middle the two cards are 8 and T. You hold AKQ
You hand is a straight A high using A,J (neighboring cards) and the T from the center and KQ from your hand.
Usually when the center cards are opened, there is a 30 seconds silence for everyone to understand what their hand is
Game #6: Harakiri
This game is usually played as the last game of the night (unless some serious gambling needs to go on earlier lol).
There are no blinds or antes in this game, and its a purely mathematical game but is a lot of fun too. SKlansky would like it a lot
Each player gets dealt 7 cards in front of them and they remained closed.
You must not pickup and see your cards!
Then each player opens one card in front of him and bets the amount he wants or checks.
Special betting rule:
If the player that opened a card checks, there can be no bet in this round.
If he bets then there can be raises from other players.
The game becomes really chaotic when 3-4 cards are opened by each player and then calculating outs, combinations and proper amounts for betting to make others unprofitable are so fun
although this game can be completely solved by a computer, try to outwit your friends and you will be surprised how hard it is. (at least for some of us that are not chess international gmasters).
The meaning of this game because large amounts of money go in , is to allow a big loser of the night to get most of his losses back (or loose a much much bigger amount of course!).
As for the strategy, I think a whole book can be written (which i actually have contemplated about in the past).
Have fun with your buddies, or invite new people to learn the game (you cannot imagine how profitable that is because of the fun nature of the games :P )
aris
Two Plus Two
Linear Mode
